My valve cover gaskets are leaking and I'm in the process of replacing them. I ordered a kit from eBay which ended up costing $50.00 shipped to my door. The manufacturer is FCP Groton, which is a well known and reputable brand. Personally I think the Blauparts brand has better quality but for the price this couldn't be beat. I also bought a tube of gasket maker. I chose Permantex Ultra Copper. It has the highest temperature rating over all other types of gasket maker and it was recommended for valve covers. It was $10.00 at
Princess Auto.

Valve cover leaks are pretty common on the 2.8 30V motor. It's due to excess pressure in the valve covers and cylinder heads due to clogged breather hoses. That's a whole other topic to talk about on a different thread but basically if you have problems with your EGR/Combi valves, PCV/breather hoses, suction pump purge valve or N80 valve then you can be sure that you will have a valve cover gasket leak in the future.

To find out if your valve cover gaskets are leaking, simply remove your center and side engine covers and feel around the edges of the valve covers. If you find oil, then you have a leak. Also, you can check by pulling the spark plug wires and checking them if they are wet. On my car I found on Bank 1, Cylinder #2 was soaking wet, Cylinder #3 was slightly wet and Cylinder #1 was dry. On Bank 2, Cylinder #6 was soaked, Cylinder #5 was wet and Cylinder #4 was starting to get wet.

Just to let you know I've never done this before but it is simple enough in theory and having plenty of previous experience working on cars definitely helps. More pics to come tomorrow when I actually get down do it.

Pic 1 - The valve cover gasket kit from FCP Groton.
Pic 2 - Centre engine cover and bank 1 engine cover removed.
Pic 3 - Bank 1, cylinder #2 soaking wet.
Pic 4 - Bank 2, cylinder #6 soaking wet.

 

Replacing cam seals should also be considered

 

I was planning on replacing my cam seals as well, but I still haven't figured out how to set my engine to TDC without tearing off the front bumper, and that's not something I'm willing to do or something that I have the time to do this the adverse weather.

 

All right, I finished the job today. I'm not going to explain exactly which tools you need to use because this job requires no special tools at all. I used mainly a 1/4 inch drive ratchet with both shallow and deep metric sockets plus an extension. Various sets of screwdrivers as well. The job took almost 4 hours. If I didn't have to take pictures and if I didn't have the tube of gasket maker blow up in my hands then it would have been a much quicker job. I can see this easily being a 2 hour job the next time around.

Pic 1 - You need to remove the engine covers, air intake assembly and coolant reservoir. I removed the air intake assembly from the flex pipe closest to the throttle body all the way up to the front intake. I didn't bother to remove the airbox. The coolant reservoir simply needs to be moved to the side. You have to disconnect the coolant level sensor sitting at the bottom of the reservoir to be able to move it completely.

Pic 2 - With all that stuff out of the way we can start on the passenger side valve cover. You need to disconnect and move the breather hose from the valve covers, and the hard line (not sure what it is) as well. The breather hose comes off by squeezing together the fitting and pulling away from the valve cover. The hard line is 10mm. The spark plug wires need to be removed as well. If your spark plug wires are not numbered, be sure to write down which ones go where. That is absolutely critical as you will end up misfiring put the wrong wires on the wrong cylinders!

Pic 3 - Here is a closer look at the passenger-side valve cover. Right above my air ratchet you can see "AHA" engraved on the valve cover. That's the engine code. The 2.8 30V motors are either AHA for drive-by-cable or or ATQ for drive-by-wire. The nuts for the valve covers are 10mm and there are 8 of them in total. Once the valve cover nuts are removed you can gently pull off the valve covers. They come straight up and out. You may also move the engine oil dipstick to make it easier for you to remove the valve cover. It's a 13mm socket.

Pic 4 - This is what it looks like without the valve covers. You can notice how oil leaked into Cylinders #1 and #2, as well as the oil staining on my exhaust manifold heat shield. Remove the gaskets and clean off the remains with a scraper. Be careful not to damage anything or to drop anything in the spark plug holes. I would strongly advise you not use sandpaper or a blowgun in your engine bay at this point. I was able to clean everything off with a simple flathead screwdriver and some Q-Tips.

Continued on next post...

 

Pic 5 - This is what it looks like with all the original gasket removed and cleaned off, and then the new gasket maker placed on the mounting surfaces. You don't need too much, just a thin bead will do. Be sure to go around the nuts and most importantly the crevices where oil can sit. Then install the new gaskets in place, exactly the same way the original ones were. They will seem a tad bit loose at first. The large staggered valley piece is the part of the gasket you need to be careful with. It has to sit just right.

Pic 6 - Place the valve covers back on and finger-tighten the nuts. Check for play within the gasket and make sure everything is snug. After all the nuts are in place, tighten them down from the centre nuts outward. I started with the nuts between the spark plug holes, then the centre nut closer to the intake manifold, then the opposite centre nut closer to the exhaust manifold, then the nut closer to the intake manifold near the front of the engine, then opposite, then finally the nut closer to the intake manifold near the rear of the engine and the opposite. Unfortunately I didn't have a torque wrench that small increments so I just tightened them until I felt they were tight enough. The actual torque measurement is 7lb-ft.

Pic 7 - Put everything back together and this is what it should look like. This is actually the easier side of the two.

Pic 8 - Now switch over to the driver side and you'll notice how things are far more tight than before. Same as before, disconnect and move the breather hose and push everything out of the way. If you need to, remove the power steering reservoir heatshield to gain more access to the bottom nuts. Once everything has been removed, pop off the valve covers and clean the mating surfaces.

Pic 9 - If you look closely you can see a buildup of oil in Cylinder #5 and #6. You can barely see the end of the spark plug! That's how bad my inner valve cover gaskets were leaking. Strangely, the outer perimeter valve cover on this side wasn't leaking, as my exhaust manifold heat shield was dry.

Pic 10 - After everything is ready, squeeze gasket maker onto the mating surfaces and reinstall the valve cover. Finger tighten the valve cover nuts and then in the order of the centre outwards torque down the nuts. Reconnect and reinstall everything you disconnected and removed earlier.

Pic 11 - I ended up damaging what I believe is a vacuum line. It was in a poor position and is made of such brittle plastic it ended up breaking. I'm going to replace it sometime tomorrow. Hopefully it all works out. I ended up taping it back together but I don't know how well this will turn out.

Pic 12 - Everything is all back in place. I wouldn't start the car up just yet. I'd wait a couple of hours. I finished the job at around 1PM, and I'm not going to fire the car up until I leave for work tomorrow at 7:00AM. By then the gasket maker should have had enough time to cure.

Pic 13 - Audi all the way!

 

Very informative LR. I wasn't going to do this myself because I have to change the Cam seals as well and that seams to be a bit of a undertaking. I talked to my Mechanic, who I really trust, and he tells me that the book time for the Cam seals and Valve cover is going to take 8 hours in total. That is Charge time. After seeing this I know I could do the valve covers but the cam seals are not something that I want to play with.
I your pics with the valve covers off it looks like there is a chain driving the camshafts. Am I right?

 

If you have to change the cam seals as well it requires a special tool that is around $20 off eBay and you can add about 30 minutes to the time it takes to do this fairly simply job. I'd give this a 2/10 in regards to difficulty. If 1 is an oil change, this is slightly more involved but a lot longer in duration. 8 hours is a load of bulls**t. I was quoted the same job from Shift Autosport in Burnaby for $465 for everything. Tax, labour, parts and a warranty. If I can do this job with simple hand tools in less than 4 hours then your licensed mechanic should be able to do it in 2 hours with his expertise and equipment. I wouldn't trust someone who goes by book time rather than actual experience, but that's just me. I really should have done the cam chain tensioner gaskets but I needed to get the valve covers done right away as the leak was really bad. I may post another DIY article that includes the cam chain tensioner gaskets at a later date, but I won't be posting it on this website.

Yes, the camshafts are chain driven.

 

I hear what your saying and I may end up doing it myself and going from there. I was planning on using this car as a stepping stone to different Audi's anyway.
What is the tool? Is there a specific name I should be looking for?
So this engine has a timing belt and chain driven cams. Man! these Germans are realing thourough.
Have you done anything about the chinsie plastic PVC tubing?

 

This is a good start to get into Audi cars, but you may find yourself liking this more and more. Although my A6 is much older than my A4, I find it is an overall better car. If you are planning on moving up the Audi ladder, I'd move onto either a 4.2 40V A6 or an A5. You can also get an A8 if you have lots of money.

The tool is a cam chain tensioner tool, here is the link on one of the eBay vendors:
VW AUDI Cam Belt Chain Tensioner Holder Holding Tool on eBay.ca (item 250806142932 end time 19-Apr-11 22:17:30 EDT)

Yes, these engines use chains for cam timing and a replaceable timing belt. The little plastic vacuum hose didn't affect my driving but I was able to replace it today. Just threw on some 7/32-inch windshield washer hose from Canadian Tire then covered it up with wire loom to further protect it. Took a mere 5 minutes and cost $10. Overall I'd say I easily saved $300+ just by doing this myself. If you are planning on selling your car a later date, save yourself some money and do this yourself. It's more difficult to sell a car that has leaks, especially when these leaks are easy to find.

 

hey man, just did this today, thanks for the write up...SUPER useful.
one note, the small vacuum line that is on the drivers side front, it was brittle as and cracked in 3 places when moving it. other than that, easy peazy!